Why The CIA Failed In Iraq

Maliki Compromised CIA Spies in Iraq for Years -- Jeff Stein, Newsweek

U.S. military advisors arriving in Iraq better be careful who they talk to and where they go: Their Iraq ‘allies’ will almost certainly be spying on them.

According to three current and former CIA officers, the Iraqi government, led by Muslim Shiites with close ties to Iran, has waged an aggressive campaign against the spy agency and other U.S. security personnel in the country for several years. “They cover us like a blanket,” says former CIA official John Maguire, who was deputy CIA station chief in Iraq in 2004 and maintains widespread contacts there as an oil business consultant.

The first targets of Iraq’s counterspies were CIA contacts in the fledgling Iraq National Intelligence Service, or INIS, set up by the CIA in 2004, Maguire and others say. Its first chief was a longtime CIA asset, Gen. Mohammed Shahwani, an Iraqi Sunni who had plotted against the late dictator Saddam Hussein. The INIS soon came under assault by the rival, Shiite-led Ministry of Interior, headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

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Update #1:CIA let Iraq spy network wither after troop withdrawal, officials claim -- FOX News/AP
Update #2: Officials Say Iraq Pullout Hurt US Spying -- Newsmax

My Comment: I guess everyone is now looking for an excuse to explain why Iraq is imploding .... the CIA included.